The Importance of Costumes
by gumdrop
Summary: A four-year old Ginny Weasley is invited to her first costumed party.


Disclaimer: The characters and settings that appear in this story belong to J.K. Rowling/ Warner Brothers.  
  
A/N: Dedicated to Jewels, for being a smashing beta-reader and for picking up on and helping me fix some major discrepancies. Thank you :) Also for Ame, whom I hope is having a great time in Italy :)  
  
The Importance of Costumes  
  
  
The Leaky Cauldron  
  
Dedalus Diggle looked carefully at the shopfronts as he walked along the pavement. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the doorway between the large specialist bookshop and the record store. He quickly looked at it directly, before his eyes slid away without his consent. Forcing his eyeballs to gravitate towards the grubby doorway, Dedalus entered the non-existent tiny pub, taking off his top hat as those eyeballs adjusted to the dim lights. Having just recovered from a particularly nasty bout of illness, his magical abilities were not as they were normally, though Professor Minerva McGonagall would probably remark that it was better this way, as he wouldn't be able to create large magical displays in Muggle areas. She remained unconvinced that he had any sense after his celebratory show of shooting stars in the town of Kent when Voldemort's reign of terror had come to an end.  
  
  
The Muggle in front of the record shop shook her head in disbelief, and resumed browsing for the White album in the outdoor stands.  
  
  
Dedalus moved towards the bar, and catching sight of Arthur Weasley introducing his only daughter to butterbeer, sat down on the stool next to them.  
  
"I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting your beautiful daughter?" Diggle asked, causing Ginny to smile at him shyly.  
  
"This is Ginny," said Arthur proudly. "Ginny, this Mr. Diggle. He works in the Ministry, too."  
  
Ginny nodded, smiling, but soon got bored with their "work talk", as she'd often heard her mother call it.  
  
  
The friendly barman, Tom, came over to serve Mr Diggle ("A sherry, thanks"), and winking at Ginny, slipped her a coaster to decorate with a green marker. Busily writing her name on the coaster, Ginny half-listened to their conversation, something about a blue Ford Anglia. Then Mr. Diggle changed the subject...   
  
"...Yes, I was in Muggle London only the other week, " Dedalus was saying. "You'll never guess who I saw!"  
  
"Who?" asked Tom, leaning in as Dedalus lowered his voice.  
  
"Harry Potter himself!"  
  
Ginny's head swivelled in his direction.  
  
"How did he look?" asked Tom.  
  
"Well, I knew it was him by the scar of course. He looks like his father, with the messy black hair," he said, addressing Tom. "But he does have his mother's green eyes. Of course, it was a bit hard to notice, they were behind Lennon-ish type glasses".  
  
The rush hour arrived with a large group of young adults who came through the pub door and started to loudly place orders at the counter. She only heard snatches of what Diggle was saying to her father over the cacophony of voices.  
  
"broken...sticky taped they were..."  
  
"...skinny"  
  
"Yes, I heard...Muggle family"  
  
As she tilted nearer so she could hear, she almost toppled off her seat. Her father caught her just in time.  
  
"Come on, Ginny," he said glancing at the Leaky Cauldron clock. "We should be off home". He nodded at Dedalus and Tom, and they departed. As they left, Tom heard Ginny asking her father what 'Lennon-ish glasses' were, and chuckled.  
  
  
* * * * *  
  
  
The Burrow  
  
"But Mum, I want this one!" said Ginny as she pointed at the picture.   
  
"It's your first dress-up party, Gin. Are you sure you want that costume? There'll be lots of other kids with the same one."   
  
"It doesn't matter. Mine will be the BEST! I know exactly what he looks like!"   
  
"All right then," Molly Weasley agreed with a sigh. It seemed the only thing Ginny had talked about all week was Mr Diggle's sighting of Harry Potter. "We'll make it tonight". Who was she to deny her only daughter's wishes?   
  
Ginny grinned as she catapulted towards her mother's legs with a hug. Mrs. Weasley grinned in return at the excitement in her daughter's face as she marked the page in Witch Weekly, absently patting her daughter's hair.  
  
  
* * * * *  
  
  
Ginny sat excitedly at the Weasley dining table, listening to her brothers manoeuvre the craft box down from the attic. After much grunting from Bill and Percy, it was unceremoniously plopped down on a chair.   
  
Percy looked at Ginny, his glasses askew. "Weren't you meant to cover the table in newspaper?" Ginny jumped out of her chair, and began slapping the Daily Prophet all over the table.   
  
"Not that one, Gin," said Charlie, grinning as he came down the stairs, Spellotape in hand. "That's today's edition". He picked the sheets up and put them together somewhat messily. Percy began laying out last weekend's newspaper.   
  
Ginny giggled as her mum appeared, loaded with reels of material. Mrs. Weasley put them down on the counter. "Bill, dear, would you run up to the hall closet and get my sewing basket before you and Charlie leave? And while you're at it, call Fred and George downstairs."   
  
"Aren't Charlie and Bill coming to Uncle Bob's with us?" asked Ginny, a pucker appearing in the middle of her forehead.   
  
"Of course not," said Ron, head sticking around the pantry door. "They're too OLD! They're going to spend the night down the road."  
  
"Don't worry, Gin," said Charlie, picking her up and spinning her around. "We'll make sure Mum takes photos so we can see how gorgeous you look in your costume!"   
  
  
When Bill came down with the sewing basket, work on the costumes began in earnest. Soon the table was covered-in skeins of material, Spellotape, glitter, carefully salvaged scraps of coloured paper and cardboard (bumpy and smooth, glossy and dull), paints of many colours, and easily gripped pencils. The room was filled with the noises of creativity-scissors clacking as they were used by small hands, pencils scraping on paper, and tape unravelling from the dispensers.  
  
  
Arthur Weasley returned from work, greeted by the sight of his (mostly) redheaded family crowded around the table, finishing off their costumes. Ginny had a wig of black hair over her own fiery red, George was "helping" Ron sew a hat, pricking his fingers every few stitches, Fred was cutting a shape in some black cardboard, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth in concentration, and Percy was carefully adding Spellotape to a spare set of his glasses for Ginny. Arthur sat down to help with the ultimate touches, and soon all the costumes were complete.  
  
  
Well, almost all.   
  
"Where's your mother?" asked Arthur, helping Ginny pack up the pencils.   
  
"She went upstairs to get out your costumes," explained Ginny.  
  
Arthur made a face. "Did Uncle Bob say the adults had to wear costumes, too?"  
  
"Apparently so," answered Percy, jauntily placing his hat on his head.  
  
"Come on, we'd better clean up this mess before your mother comes back down," said Arthur with a sigh. The Weasley kids responded with a hurried clean-up job. Soon the house was tidy-well as neat as it usually was, anyhow.   
  
  
"When are we going to our cousins?" asked Ginny.   
  
"We're meant to be at the Heights in time for dinner," said Ron, eyes widening as he imagined the banquet.   
  
The house trembled with the mad rush for the bathroom. The mirror sighed as she thought of the workout she would get complimenting the Weasley children on their costumes.  
  
  
* * * * *  
  
  
The Heights  
  
The Weasley's spilled out of the fireplace into the prettily decorated room. After greeting the other guests, they went to find the hosts of the gathering, Molly's brother , Bob, and his wife, Rita. Ginny passed lots of people dressed up like Harry Potter, but she and her Mum agreed that her costume was the BEST. It couldn't be otherwise after she'd heard Mr. Diggle and Tom's confabulation in the Leaky Cauldron the previous week.  
  
  
"Let me see," said Uncle Bob, giving each of them a huge bear hug.   
  
"Ron! You're the captain of the Chudley Cannons, right?" He guessed, looking at his nephew's bright orange get up.   
  
"Yep!" said Ron, smiling proudly, waving his cardboard broom around.   
  
"Percy! The Minister of Magic?" asked Aunty Rita, eyeing his bowler hat with a smile.  
  
"Of course!"  
  
  
And so the identification of the costumes went on. Fred and George had dressed up as spiders, and Mrs. Weasley couldn't work out why Ron wouldn't go near them. The Weasley parents themselves had dressed up as Muggles, to Arthur's great delight.  
  
  
And lastly, there was Ginny's costume.  
  
"Hmmm..." said Bob. "Black hair. Glasses. And what's that? A scar on your forehead?"  
  
"A LIGHTNING BOLT scar," pointed out Molly, winking at her brother.  
  
"I wonder who you could be. Albus Dumbledore? Wendelin the Weird? Uric the Oddball?"   
  
"NO!" giggled Ginny.  
  
"It's not...Harry Potter?"  
  
After which Ginny proceeded to tackle her Uncle with a huge hug. 


End file.
